The National Review sums up nicely what happened on Tuesday in Pennsylvania. Bush and Santorum campaigned for Specter, giving the victory to a man who will oppose conservative legislation in Washington D.C. They did not support him because of his views, but because he is the incumbent.

Toomey’s campaign had legions of motivated young conservatives volunteering — the college Republicans from schools throughout the state, and young Capitol Hill staffers up from Washington, D.C.

But Arlen Specter had something far more powerful on his side. He had the machine on working for him. He was able to pour $5 million into a get-out-the-vote effort in the final 72 hours, and drive up turnout in the moderate white-bread suburbs of Montgomery County. Specter had George Soros and well-heeled Main Street Republicans teaming up with the National Republican Senatorial Committee for him at the last minute.

The party was not trying to advance Specter’s liberal policies. The party was doing what the party exists to do: protect its own….

Pat Toomey didn’t lose to liberal Arlen Specter. Toomey lost to the entire Republican party. That Republican victory was at the cost of the conservative cause.

Meanwhile, the Washington Times points out that many conservatives are blaming Santorum for Specter’s win.

“The person our members are most infuriated at is Rick Santorum,” said Stephen Moore, president of the Club for Growth, which helped lead a conservative crusade in support of Rep. Patrick J. Toomey’s Senate primary bid against Mr. Specter….

“Santorum undermined fellow conservatives in a really ignoble way, telling people a conservative can’t win. Our members won’t forget that for a long time,” said Mr. Moore, whose national organization contributed million to the Toomey campaign and spent another million in television ads on the candidate’s behalf.

Mr. Santorum campaigned on behalf of his colleague, despite pleas from notable conservative groups. And fueling their anger is the considerable help that the White House and the national Republican leadership gave Mr. Specter, even though during his 24 years in the Senate he often voted with Democrats against Republican-sponsored legislation backed by Republican presidents, including President Bush.
Even in Mr. Santorum’s home state, anger abounds over what some fellow conservatives regard as his apostasy….

“Had we been able to count on the people who we should have been to count on, Toomey would have been our senator,” said Sandy Usher, a well-known state Republican activist.

And now that he has the Republican nomination, Snarlin’ Arlen is back to his true self and has already jettisoned the faux-conservative mantle.

“I intend to retain my independent voice, a voice I have always had,” Mr. Specter said. “The 12 million people of Pennsylvania have not elected me to be a rubber stamp, and I will speak out where I think the necessity calls for it.”

In other words, back to the old liberal Arlen. Thanks, Mr. President. Thanks, Senator Santorum.